How to play Star Raiders online
- Steer: arrow keys. In the front view, up dives and down climbs; the aft view reverses this.
- Fire photon torpedoes: Z or X
- Skill level: = (the keypad’s # key) before you start, to step through Novice, Pilot, Warrior and Commander
- Start: Enter
- Pause: P
- Ship systems: the keypad digits, see the table below. 0 to 8 are on your keyboard; for 9 press K and pick it on the on-screen keypad with the joystick and Z.
- Restart, full screen and save states: the emulator toolbar (move the mouse over the screen)
Once the game has started, the keypad works in two modes. Press = (#) for Control Mode, in which the digits switch equipment on and off, or – (*) for Speed Mode, in which the digits set your speed from 0 (engines stopped) to 9.
| Key (Control Mode) | Function |
|---|---|
| 1 | Front view |
| 2 | Aft view |
| 3 | Long-range sector scan |
| 4 | Galactic chart |
| 5 | Tracking computer |
| 6 | Shields |
| 7 | Attack computer |
| 8 | Hyperwarp |
| 9 | Manual target selector |
| 0 | Abort hyperwarp |
Gameplay
Your orders are to destroy every Zylon ship in the galaxy while keeping your starbases alive. The galactic chart divides space into sectors and shows where the Zylon groups are: a patrol is two ships, a task force three and a fleet four, and the bigger the group the slower it moves. Pick a sector, hyperwarp to it, switch on the attack computer and shields, then find the enemy on the long-range scan and shoot them down from the cockpit.
Zylon fighters are fast and deadly close up, cruisers only shoot back when attacked, and the shielded basestars have to be hit at short range. Everything costs energy, from the 9,999 units you start with: a torpedo is 10 units, shields 2 a second, each enemy hit you take 100, and a hyperwarp from 130 units for a neighbouring sector to 2,600 across the chart. Dock with a starbase to refuel and repair. If the Zylons surround a starbase, you have one minute to break through, or they destroy it and build two new ships from the wreckage.
Enemy hits can damage your torpedoes, engines, shields, computer, scanner or radio, and each fault changes how the ship behaves: damaged engines crawl, a damaged scanner shows mirror images, a hit with the shields down finishes you. The mission ends when the Zylons are wiped out, your energy runs out or you are destroyed. Instead of a score you get a rank, from Garbage Scow Captain and Galactic Cook at the bottom up through Rookie, Pilot, Ace and Captain to Commander and Star.
Skill levels
| Level | Starbases | Zylon ships | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novice | 3 | 27 | Shields block all damage and the computer steers your hyperwarps |
| Pilot | 4 | 36 | You steer hyperwarps yourself and damage is possible |
| Warrior | 5 | 45 | Faster, heavier attacks |
| Commander | 6 | 54 | Constant attacks; the only level that leads to the top ranks |
Tips
- Make short jumps. Hyperwarp cost climbs steeply with distance, and energy is what the rank is counted on.
- Cruise at speed 6. The manual calls it the most economical setting.
- Keep the warp marker centred. Above Novice you steer the jump; if the marker drifts out of the crosshairs before the warp completes, you land in the wrong sector.
- Shields down, warp out. If your shields are gone, leave the sector at once and look for a starbase once you are safe.
The story behind Star Raiders on the 5200
Doug Neubauer wrote Star Raiders for the Atari 400 and 800 computers in his spare time, starting early in 1979, with Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica (which lent the Zylon name) as his inspirations. Its real-time cockpit view was unlike anything else at home, it drew long queues at trade shows, and it has since been called the first computer “killer app”. In 2007 it was chosen for the Library of Congress game canon.
Joe Copson ported it to the 5200 in 1982, the first game to put all twelve keypad buttons to use. Since the console was an Atari 400 in disguise, the port is very close to the original: it uses the analog stick, switches to the front view by itself after a warp and fixes some bugs. The Video Game Update found it essentially the same game as the computer version. It came with two keypad overlays and, at 38 pages, the thickest manual of any 5200 cartridge. The 2600 version of 1982, sold with a Video Touch Pad to stand in for the keypad, had a smaller chart and was generally judged the weaker of the two.
